I've always loved film music. One of the first albums I ever bought was when I was 7 years old, the soundtrack to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"! Film music has always captured a key part of the film experience for me, so I was very excited to see the new documentary SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY.
A fascinating, detailed dive into the history of music and the movies from the days of silent films to current blockbusters, the film is loaded with film clips.
We learn about Alex North's groundbreaking infusion of Jazz into film with "A Streetcar Named Desire"and Bernard Herrmann's brilliant contributions to the films of Hitchcock.
An analysis of the shower scene from "Psycho" with and without his score is especially telling.
We learn about one of my favorite composers, Jerry Goldsmith's groundbreaking work on "Planet of the Apes", with the film doing a nice job of showing history and the respect of current composers for the legends of the sixties and seventies.
John Barry's contributions to James Bond are nicely detailed and their impact can be seen in film clips from the orchestral recordings for "Casino Royale".
Clips show a young Spielberg and John Williams discussing Steven's initial reaction to hearing the two note theme from "Jaws", which was "Come on, you know this is a serious film, right?"
Williams influence on "Star Wars" "Close Encounters" the Indiana Jones series and "ET" led to a resurgence in full orchestral scores that lives on today.
We also see modern composers like Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and hear some of his and Atticus Ross's work for David Fincher's films. Their stories are some of the best, along with Hans Zimmer's always entertaining perspective on his work on blockbusters. He's hilarious and the film's unearthing of his very, very early appearance on MTV is as funny as it is startling.
If you are a film buff, you're going to be in heaven.
The perspective from the industry is fascinating and as you realize that film soundtracks are the last constant source of work for the great orchestras of our country, it makes preserving the art of film scores even more critical for our national culture.
Entertaining and informative, this great new documentary hits a perfect bulls-eye for me, touching on many film scores that have been the soundtrack of my life for five decades.
SCORE it an A.
(And what a fun find in Downtown Phoenix in FilmBar, a great spot for Indie Films in a casual setting. The brewery spot across the street isn't a bad way to kick off or end the evening either....check it out!)
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